While it seems outdated communist ideal, a philosopher who is defined as an echo that is surprising, even abroad. Alain Badiou, who analyzes the conditions for genuine equality, affirming the need for a radical democratic consensus.
Philosophie Magazine From the coffee-edged for some time that philosophy left his ivory tower to restore meaning to the business of living. Convened first in the field rarely compromising morals, today it is also in the political arena. It is a sign of the times: they try open gaps in the melancholy helplessness aroused by the law duo-end market of ideologies.
Therefore, there is nothing astonishing return to the question of compromise, which supports the renewed curiosity Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. In contrast, beyond the seduction of short pamphlet vigor De quoi Sarkozy est-il nom him? [ What is the name of Sarkozy? ] (1), the impact of the recent work of Alain Badiou was a bit predictable, not because there was expressed a critique of capitalism is no longer an anomaly in our troubled times, but because This criticism is linked to a compliment of communism, "that wonderful old word, the story seemed to have become synonymous with failure and despotism. The current projection Badiou then testify that the invocations of the moral system is no longer sufficient and that the fight against resignation dreams and weapons searches. It remains to examine what is the basis of this radical alternative which the sender is recognized today, along with Slavoj Zizek, great party.
revolutionary tool
Badiou not expected to define a program, but using philosophy as a "Destabilizing power of views dominant" and imposing a "revolutionary relevance" (2), showing first the "internal link between capitalism and representative democracy expanded" (3). Since it supports "adversaries, not enemies," one can "carrying a different view of things, another rule of the game that is not the dominating" (4): that is respect for individual freedoms, including including that of being an entrepreneur, owner, etc.. Join the discussion on democracy is to accept its inherent limitations which prohibit think outside of these values, however, these values \u200b\u200bare also those of capitalism. Therefore, the only political program that can be is "the best manager definition" enclosed as possible within the limits of private property ... With all logic, parties and unions are doomed to be collaborators of the parliamentary capital, and left and reveals his "meanness constitutive" (5). Freedom of thought and choice they offer both liberalism and reformism is illusory, up to and even, in its expression through universal suffrage. Since the individual is subject to influences, selfishness and ignorance, the "recurring stupidity of the number"-o In other words, the majority rule, can only be a tyranny of opinion.
Nothing revolutionary about this banal contempt for the "elites", convinced that only they are endowed with intelligence. Badiou unless justified in the name of a revolutionary ideal, that of true equality, which implies that "others are just like me." What hinders it is what he calls "the animal": a commitment to oneself, one's identity as an evil substance that naturally leads to preferred, and thrives on possession. Universal suffrage, suffrage
egos ...
Fitness for transcendence
There is a constant right-wing thought, to "naturalize" capitalism is based on the same definition of human nature as greedy and egocentric. Yet Badiou save this poor "animal species that tries to overcome his animal nature" (6), providing the ability to transcendence, that is, the capacity to subordinate the selfish needs to the principles, truths that apply to everyone. Moreover, there is the very foundation of democracy, which postulates that all men are endowed with reason, by society-in especially through education, and provide the means (to learn how to use it) to emancipate themselves from the confusion of the instincts and other provocative opinion. However, Badiou believes that out of the cave of the ego is neither progressive nor programmable. Takes place in the collision of an encounter with what he calls "the event." A historic, artistic and loving, it suddenly "appear a possibility that was invisible or unthinkable" (7), breaking the consensus of the sovereign value attributed to what marks the individual, rather than what is universal. This sudden discovery allows pulling of "animal finitude of identities" and, finally, to greet the fundamental equality of humans: enter transcendence.
This dazzling opening possibilities raises several questions. Where does it follows that an error suddenly to greet you? Why random one is "chosen"? The activation of transcendence seems strangely to the "grace" and the transfiguring effect of truth does not exist without reference to a conversion. We can only approve Žižek, an expert on the work of Badiou, when he emphasizes that "religious revelation is its unacknowledged paradigm" (8). Is the "communist hypothesis" it would be another name for love, that "personal experience of the universality possible" (9), which the philosopher Plato, having written about San Pablo, devoted a book of interviews?
Therefore we can understand better why Badiou does not care about the working class but by the last poor, as symbolized by immigrant workers, and still more by the undocumented, who "should be honored because they organize on behalf of all us the affirmation of a different thought of human life "(10). It is also understood better why, to exist, communism should be provided with the means to "control the influence of identity "always threatening, otherwise unable to maintain a truly egalitarian society. But who would know that such an election judge, the purpose, is a carrier of inequality, if not an aristocracy of enlightened "philosophers" possessors of the truth? -. "No Idea, the disorientation of the masses is inevitable" (11). By the way, should arrive the day, "perhaps a thousand or two thousand years, that society is educated in the sense of Plato" (12): namely that all are philosophers.
But pending that Eden would be imposed the common good. This does not scare who always reminded us that "our debt to the Cultural Revolution remains immense," and approves the question of Saint-Just: "What do they want those who want neither Virtue nor Terror", if not democracy not equal? \u200b\u200b...
The "hypothesis" Badiou causes long term, some shudder. In the immediate term, however, that "communism" little disturbs the existing order. Attacks on universal suffrage "populist" can only satisfy the followers of the "governance" that are rarely revolutionary, the rejection of any action part of a party or a union can only cheer the proponents of the system. But above all, a spiritual affirmation of the Absolute Truth revelation seems to only offer free of Marxist communism, as abstracted from history that it adorns the poetic charm of utopias harmless.
NOTES
1. Alain Badiou, De quoi Sarkozy est-il nom him? , Circonstances , 4, Lignes, Paris, 2007.
2. Alain Badiou, Manifesto for Second philosophy, Manantial, Buenos Aires, 2010.
3. Alain Badiou Alain Finkielkraut there, explanation. Conversation with Aude Lancelin , Lines, Paris, 2010.
4. France Culture, 27-2-10.
5. Alain Badiou, What is Sarkozy's name? , op. cit.
6. "The communist hypothesis - interview with Alain Badiou by Pierre Gaultier (www.legrandsoir.info).
7. Alain Badiou, The communist hypothesis , Circumstances , 5, Lines, 2009. Véase también en español Analía Huni (compiladora), Sobre la idea del comunismo , Paidós, Buenos Aires, febrero de 2010.
8. Slavoj Žižek, El sublime objeto de la ideología , Siglo XXI, Buenos Aires, 2003.
9. Alain Badiou (con Nicolas Truong), Eloge de l’amour , Flammarion, Colección “Café Voltaire”, París, 2009.
10. Alain Badiou, De quoi Sarkozy est-il le nom? , op. cit.
11. Alain Badiou, L’ hypothèse communiste , op. cit.
12. Alain Badiou, Alain Finkielkraut, L'explication , op. cit.
Translation: Teresa Garufi
Source: Le Monde diplomatique , Paris, January 2011.
0 comments:
Post a Comment